This page describes how to convert web pages and HTML documents to PDF in Ruby using the Pdfcrowd API. The API is easy to use and the integration takes only a couple of lines of code.
Enter a web page or upload an HTML file to get a PDF preview and integration code that you can copy and paste to your application.
Or choose from the examples below and adapt the code to your needs.
You can also interactively explore the API in our API Playground.
gem install pdfcrowd
We also offer other installation options.
Authentication is needed in order to use the Pdfcrowd API. The credentials used for accessing the API are your Pdfcrowd username and the API key.
demo
ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d
Or you can start a free trial or purchase the API license to get your personal API credentials.
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "example.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # run the conversion and store the result into the "pdf" variable pdf = client.convertUrl("http://www.example.com") # at this point the "pdf" variable contains PDF raw data and # can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc. rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # create an output stream for the conversion result output_stream = open("example.pdf", "wb") # run the conversion and write the result into the output stream client.convertUrlToStream("http://www.example.com", output_stream) # close the output stream output_stream.close() rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertFileToFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html", "MyLayout.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # run the conversion and store the result into the "pdf" variable pdf = client.convertFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html") # at this point the "pdf" variable contains PDF raw data and # can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc. rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # create an output stream for the conversion result output_stream = open("MyLayout.pdf", "wb") # run the conversion and write the result into the output stream client.convertFileToStream("/path/to/MyLayout.html", output_stream) # close the output stream output_stream.close() rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>", "HelloWorld.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # run the conversion and store the result into the "pdf" variable pdf = client.convertString("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>") # at this point the "pdf" variable contains PDF raw data and # can be sent in an HTTP response, saved to a file, etc. rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # create an output stream for the conversion result output_stream = open("HelloWorld.pdf", "wb") # run the conversion and write the result into the output stream client.convertStringToStream("<html><body><h1>Hello World!</h1></body></html>", output_stream) # close the output stream output_stream.close() rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setDebugLog(true) # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertFileToFile("/path/to/MyLayout.html", "MyLayout.pdf") # print URL to the debug log puts "Debug log url: #{client.getDebugLogUrl()}" # print the number of available conversion credits in your account puts "Remaining credit count: #{client.getRemainingCreditCount()}" # print the number of credits consumed by the conversion puts "Consumed credit count: #{client.getConsumedCreditCount()}" # print the unique ID of the conversion puts "Job id: #{client.getJobId()}" # print the total number of pages in the output document puts "Page count: #{client.getPageCount()}" # print the size of the output in bytes puts "Output size: #{client.getOutputSize()}" rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setPageSize("Letter") client.setOrientation("landscape") client.setNoMargins(true) # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "letter_landscape.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setHeaderHeight("15mm") client.setFooterHeight("10mm") client.setHeaderHtml("<a class='pdfcrowd-source-url' data-pdfcrowd-placement='href-and-content'></a>") client.setFooterHtml("<center><span class='pdfcrowd-page-number'></span></center>") client.setMarginTop("0") client.setMarginBottom("0") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "header_footer.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setEnablePdfForms(true) # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("<html><body>Enter name:<input type=text></body></html>", "form.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setScaleFactor(300) # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "zoom_300.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setAuthor("Pdfcrowd") client.setTitle("Hello World") client.setSubject("Demo") client.setKeywords("Pdfcrowd,demo") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "with_metadata.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setPageLayout("single-page") client.setPageMode("full-screen") client.setInitialZoomType("fit-page") client.setOrientation("landscape") client.setNoMargins(true) # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("https://pdfcrowd.com/doc/api/", "slide_show.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setElementToConvert("#main") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("https://pdfcrowd.com/doc/api/", "html_part.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setCustomJavascript("el=document.createElement('h2'); el.textContent='Hello from Pdfcrowd API'; el.style.color='red'; el_before=document.getElementsByTagName('h1')[0]; el_before.parentNode.insertBefore(el, el_before.nextSibling)") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "html_inject.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setViewportWidth(992) client.setRenderingMode("viewport") client.setSmartScalingMode("viewport-fit") client.setNoMargins(true) # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("https://getbootstrap.com/", "bootstrap.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" require "zip" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # create ZIP archive in_stream = Zip::OutputStream.write_buffer do |zip_io| # add HTML content to the archive zip_io.put_next_entry("index.html") zip_io.write "<html> <head> <style> @font-face { font-family: 'OpenSans'; src: url(fonts/OpenSans.ttf) format('truetype'); } h1 { font-family: OpenSans; } </style> </head> <body> <h1>Hello World</h1> <img src='images/logo.png'> </body> </html>" # add required local files to the archive zip_io.put_next_entry("fonts/OpenSans.ttf") File.open("/your-path-to/fonts/OpenSans.ttf", "rb") do |in_file| zip_io.write in_file.read end zip_io.put_next_entry("images/logo.png") File.open("/your-path-to/images/logo.png", "rb") do |in_file| zip_io.write in_file.read end end in_stream.rewind # create an output stream for the conversion result output_stream = open("HelloFromZip.pdf", "wb") # run the conversion and write the result into the output stream client.convertStreamToStream(in_stream, output_stream) # close the output stream output_stream.close() rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setCustomJavascript("libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements({backgroundColor: 'rgba(255, 191, 0, 0.1)', borderColor:null})") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "highlight_background.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("demo", "ce544b6ea52a5621fb9d55f8b542d14d") # configure the conversion client.setCustomJavascript("libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements({borderColor: 'orange', backgroundColor: null, padding: '4px', margin: '4px'})") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertUrlToFile("http://www.example.com", "highlight_borders.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
The API can be easily integrated into your environment. You can have our interactive API Playground autogenerate the integration code for you:
You can also check out a complete example in our pdfcrowd-examples Github repository:
The API lets you convert a web page, a local HTML file, or a string containing HTML. The result of the conversion can be stored to a local file, to a stream object or to a variable. See the conversion input section for more details.
The best way to start with the API is to choose one of the examples and once you get it working, you can further customize the code. You can find the most common customizations in the table below.
Page size | Change the page size with setPageSize or setPageDimensions . Pass -1 to setPageHeight to get a single page PDF containing the whole document. |
Page orientation | Change the page orientation to landscape with setOrientation. |
Page margins | Adjust the page margins with setPageMargins. |
Headers and footers |
Add headers and footers with
setHeaderHtml and
setFooterHtml.
Set the height with setFooterHeight
and setHeaderHeight.
You can learn more in this tutorial. |
Zoom | Scale the HTML contents with setScaleFactor. |
Hide or remove elements |
You can use the following classes in your HTML
code to hide or remove elements from the output:
|
Use @media print | You can switch to the print version of the page (if it exists) with setUsePrintMedia. |
Force page break |
You can force a page break with<div style="page-break-before:always"></div>
|
Avoid page break |
You can avoid a page break inside an element with
the following CSSth, td, img { page-break-inside:avoid }
|
Run custom JavaScript | You can use setOnLoadJavascript or setCustomJavascript to alter the HTML contents with a custom JavaScript. In addition to the standard browser APIs, the custom JavaScript code can use helper functions from our JavaScript library . |
Custom CSS styling |
You can alter CSS styling used during conversion
with a custom JavaScript or using the
pdfcrowd-body
CSS class, which is automatically set on the HTML
<body> element. You can, for example, set
the H1 height to 48px by adding the following line
to your CSS:
.pdfcrowd-body h1 { font-size: 48px; }
|
Add PDF signature | You can create PDF containing a digital signature field. Such PDF can be digitally signed in, for example, Adobe Acrobat or Preview. Learn more. |
The API enables rendering of HTML templates. The template syntax is based on the Jinja template rendering engine.
The most common constructs are:
Invoice: {{ invoice.number }}
{% for invoice in invoices %} ... {% endfor %}
{% if invoice.total > 100 %} ... {% endif %}
{{ invoice.to.first_name|capitalize }}
The supported input data formats are JSON, XML, CSV and YAML. The data can be uploaded from a file or from a string variable.
Supported template filters: capitalize, center, default, escape, first, forceescape, format, indent, join, last, length, list, lower, replace, reverse, safe, slice, sort, string, striptags, title, trim, truncate, unique, upper, wordcount, wordwrap.
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}") # configure the conversion client.setDataString('{ "name": "World", "product": "Pdfcrowd API" }') # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}") # configure the conversion client.setDataString('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <data> <name>World</name> <product>Pdfcrowd API</product> </data>') # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ data.name }} from {{ data.product }}", "output.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}") # configure the conversion client.setDataString("name: World product: Pdfcrowd API") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
require "pdfcrowd" begin # create the API client instance client = Pdfcrowd::HtmlToPdfClient.new("{{ user_name }}", "{{ api_key }}") # configure the conversion client.setDataString("name,product World,Pdfcrowd API") # run the conversion and write the result to a file client.convertStringToFile("Hello {{ name }} from {{ product }}", "output.pdf") rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # report the error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # rethrow or handle the exception raise end
begin # call the API rescue Pdfcrowd::Error => why # print error STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error: #{why}" # print just error code STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error Code: #{why.getCode()}" # print just error message STDERR.puts "Pdfcrowd Error Message: #{why.getMessage()}" # or handle the error in your way end
libPdfcrowd.highlightHtmlElements
method call to visualize all HTML elements. See the
backgrounds example
,
borders example
and helper
JavaScript library
documentation.
Refer for details to the API Method Reference.